Safe in Your Arms
by Bryn Gwyrdd
Summary: Lee learns how much Amanda trusts him and then learns it again when he thinks he's lost her. NSFW chapters are marked with warnings. Some angst but a happy ending.
1. Disguised

Disclaimer: I do not own of these characters; they are the property of Shoot the Moon Enterprises and Warner Bros. Television. I acknowledge gratefully the hard work of the creators of the series who brought to life characters we like so much we can't let them go.

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"Lee? What's brioche?"

He looked up from his desk, startled. "What?"

Amanda was sitting on the Q Bureau couch, legs curled under her, eating her lunch with a heavy book propped on her lap. "Philip's class is studying France and he has to do a presentation on a famous landmark, so he picked Versailles." She paused and chuckled. "Well, of course he tried to pick the Eiffel Tower, but someone beat him to it, so he got 'stuck with Versailles' as he puts it. Anyway, this book I picked up for him says Marie-Antoinette never said 'Let them eat cake' and that it's just a bad translation of 'Let them eat brioche' but I don't know what that is."

Lee leaned back in his chair and grinned at her. "I'll take you there someday for breakfast in bed and show you, if you like." He went on as Amanda looked up and smiled back at him. "It's a kind of sweet bread bun, so really it was just a better bread than the peasants got to have. But does your book also mention that she never actually said that?"

"Yes, it does, so she wasn't as dumb as the stories makes her sound. On the other hand, this whole description of her pretending to lead a simple peasant life in the little castle at the bottom of the garden makes her sound like Francine's idea of playing housewife."

"The way she'd pretend to be a simple dairy maid, surrounded by her ladies in waiting? Yep, that's definitely Francine's version of perfect domesticity."

"Did I hear my name?" said Francine, walking in the door.

"I was just telling Amanda what a perfect princess you'd have been, given the chance," Lee grinned at her

Francine paused, giving that some thought before nodding in agreement. "I could have been one, you know, but -"

"His country was too small" finished Lee and Amanda in unison.

"Well it was. And it was stuck up in the mountains somewhere nowhere near any good stores – honestly, no wonder he spent so much time in America. Anyway, I'm the bearer of a new job for you: security detail at the Rosenberg Foundation charity event next week. It should be fun, it's a costume party and with no actual threats expected, just a lot of VIPs."

Amanda glanced over the file Francine had just handed her and winced. "Hallowe'en night? Ugh."

"Is that a problem?"

"Not really, it's just that the boys are outgrowing their trick-or-treating years and it would have been nice to go out with them." She sighed and started to read further into the file. "I guess Joe gets to go this year since he missed all the other ones."

Lee came and looked over her shoulder at the brief. "Well, we don't have to do any of the prep work, we just have to attend, and the party doesn't start until 8:00, so wouldn't you have time to go out with them for a little while at least? You could go out in whatever you're going to wear to the party and then just come straight there to meet me."

Amanda looked up at him and beamed, pleased that he understood how important to her these times with her boys were. "I guess I could, if Mr. Melrose is okay with that."

"He'll be fine with it" said Francine. "There's going to be a dozen of us there anyway, and you can get briefed for most of it during the day." She paused, looking at the raised eyebrows of the partners looking at her. "What? Oh, don't think this is me being nice – Billy already made a comment about you not wanting to work that night, so if we can get you at all, he'll be happy."

"Well, I guess he's a father, so he'd understand. I'll make sure to thank him later." As Amanda spoke, the book on her lap slid off and landed on the sofa.

"What are you reading?" asked Francine, leaning forward to pick it up and flip through the pages. "Ooooh Versailles! Now that's the kind of life I should have been born into."

"Maybe you were, in a past life" said Amanda.

"Like Victoria Greenwich?" Lee grinned down at her from his perch on the back of the sofa.

Amanda smiled back at him. "Exactly. And Victoria definitely did have nine lives."

Lee winced at the memory of that ambulance ride. "Don't remind me."

Amanda patted his arm. "Hey it wasn't all bad – she had great taste in clothes. Not to mention a smoking hot chauffeur."

Francine rolled her eyes. "OK you two, break it up. It's creepy when you pretend to flirt for my benefit. Now, Amanda, do you have something to wear for this or do we need to get you down to wardrobe?"

"No, I have something in mind and I can wear it to go out with the boys too. How about you, Lee? Going as James Bond as usual?"

"Nah, I'll come up with something. What are you going as? I could try and match it."

Amanda laughed and said "Oh no, mine's a surprise. You'll know why when you see it."

Lee looked at her speculatively; he could tell from her smile that she was up to some kind of mischief, but then he relaxed. How bad could it be if she was planning to wear the same costume out with Philip and Jamie?

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Lee was feeling a little bit more like the hunted than the hunter at this party. When he'd decided to dress as Indiana Jones for the party, he had been thinking solely of the advantages of acting as security as a character who openly carried a sidearm, but he realized now that he had not factored in how many women apparently had a thing for a guy in a bomber jacket and a five o'clock shadow. He had only walked in five minutes ago and already he was beginning to wonder if he was actually going to have to use his prop bullwhip on the next Washington socialite coming at him. To his relief, he saw Billy and Jeanie walk in and go to the bar. "Thank goodness. Safety in numbers" he thought to himself and walked over to join them.

"You guys look great" he greeted them. Jeanie, who was slim and just slightly taller than Billy was dressed as Stan Laurel to Billy's Oliver Hardy. He had to laugh at the way the bowler hat perched on Billy's head.

"You're not so bad yourself, handsome" laughed Jeanie, beaming as he leaned down to give her a kiss on the cheek. "You must be beating off all the loveliest archeologist wannabees."

Lee grinned at the compliment as Billy rolled his eyes. "Thanks Jeanie. I wasn't expecting to see you two here tonight."

"Well, I knew you'd be short-handed until Amanda got here and it's always nice to have an excuse to go to a party with a woman you love." Billy took Jeanie's hand in his and kissed it, winking at her.

Lee leaned back on the bar and watched the couple in front of him exchange looks as if they had forgotten he was there. He wondered what it would be like to spend an evening openly with Amanda like this. They were still so much in the habit of sneaking around as Amanda put it that he wondered if they'd ever be able to transition to being "regular people".

Jeanie turned back towards him with a smile. "So is your partner ever getting here? I haven't seen her in far too long."

"Yeah, she called me on the car phone about fifteen minutes ago when I was on my way here to say she'd dropped the boys at her ex's house for a second round of trick-or-treating so she shouldn't be too much longer."

"What's her costume? Is she going to be Marion to your Indy?"

"I have no idea – she wouldn't tell me. Well, she did say she was coming as a housewife but I'm fairly sure she was kidding." Lee chuckled as he thought back to the first party he'd ever invited Amanda to, without thinking to mention it was a costume party. He'd been in a tux purposely trying to overwhelm her and she'd been in a bad mood because she was 'hideously under-dressed'. Looking back, it was a wonder she'd ever wanted to see him again, let alone ended up rescuing him from Mrs. Welch. He silently sent up a prayer of thanks, not for the first time, that he'd picked her out of the crowd on the platform that morning.

He glanced around the room wondering how much longer it would be until she arrived and then he saw her and started to laugh. She had obviously missed seeing him and was walking away from him across the room towards Dave and Fred at the bar on the far side of the ballroom. He knew now why she'd looked so mischievous that morning in the Q Bureau as he watched her try to work her way through the crowd, because it was a joke only the two of them would understand. She was dressed as Marie-Antoinette, hair hidden under a powdered wig, her slim figure enhanced by the corseted dress, but the width of the skirts meant that she had to keep twisting as she walked past knots of people which made her hips sway attractively.

"Excuse me, Jeanie," he said straightening up hurriedly. "I think I see someone I know" and he headed off in pursuit, hoping to catch her before she reached the other agents.

Jeanie grinned at his departing back. "That's the look of a man after a little something-something, if you know what I mean."

Billy shook his head, hating that he was in agreement with his wife's assessment. "I don't know when that boy is ever going to grow up. I have a job posting from State Department on my desk that I think would be right up his alley but he's not going to be interested until he finds the woman who wants to make him settle down and get out of the field."

Like when you found me?"

Billy beamed at his wife and lifted her hand to kiss it again. "Like when I found you. At least I had the sense to recognize a good thing when I saw it. Lee is so set in his Scarecrow ways sometimes that I don't think he'd recognize it if it stood up and punched him the nose."

"Well, Amanda's a softball coach so I bet her throwing arm could throw a pretty good right hook if she had to."

Billy's yelp of laughter was so infectious it brought smiles out in everyone nearby.

The subject of their conversation meanwhile was speeding furiously through the crowd, eye on the unsuspecting prize in front of him, politely brushing aside the women who kept stepping out in front of him to try and get his attention. He finally caught up with her about three-quarters of the way around the room and slipped his arms around her waist, pulling her back into his chest and growling "Bonsoir, mon amour" into her ear while surreptitiously squeezing her breast. With horror, even before the words were completely out of his mouth, he knew he'd made a mistake.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" He wasn't sure whether he was relieved or not at the familiar voice screeching at him as the woman in the Marie-Antoinette costume pivoted on the spot, grabbed his hand and began to bend his fingers backwards.

"Ow! Ow! OW! Francine! Stop! I'm sorry! I thought you were - ow! - an old girlfriend!".

Francine let go of his hand and started pinching him as hard as she could in the fleshy part of his upper arm. "I AM an old girlfriend, you moron!"

"Owwwww, yeah, okay! Just stop pinching me!" He rubbed his arm vigorously once Francine finally released him. He couldn't help the quick grin as she stood glaring in front of him, hands now on her hips. "I should have guessed you'd come as a princess. Sorry about copping a feel just now, but hey, if it makes you feel better, ya still got it Desmond." His dimples got deeper as he watched the slightly mollified expression that crossed her face at his words.

"Well, thank you for that at least. Who did you think I was anyway?"

"Oh, just a French girl I used to date."

"Well, she must have been a real winner if that's a greeting she'd appreciate."

"Oh she was – that's why I was so happy to see her again."

"You are such a sexist jerk, Lee Stetson and you're supposed to be working, not playing. Where's Amanda anyway?"

"I don't know if she's here yet, or at least I haven't seen her." He spun slowly on his heel scanning the room for Amanda, wondering what her costume was going to be now that he had been so completely wrong on his first guess. When he finally saw her, propping up the bar beside Billy and Jeanie, all three of them laughing helplessly, he knew she'd seen the whole thing. As she raised her glass in a toast to him and he took in what she was wearing, he couldn't help exploding in laughter.

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It was nearing the end of the evening and they were slow dancing to the jazz band, trying their best to look simply like two good friends enjoying a night out and giving nothing away to any observers about how they really felt about each other.

Amanda was looking up at him, still grinning at the image of Lee being forced almost to his knees by Francine's grip on his upper arm. "I still can't believe you tried to cop a feel in the middle of a job, and from Francine of all people! I'll bet she left a bruise. What were you thinking?"

"I was thinking she was you!" He closed his eyes and groaned. "I knew it wasn't you the second I leaned down to whisper in her ear but unfortunately I was over-committed by then." He ran his hand down the bare skin of Amanda's back that was exposed by the keyhole cutout in the back of her dress, the movement of his fingers hidden under the long wig she was wearing, and felt her shiver with desire under his touch, even as she giggled. "I thought I was so smart. We'd had that conversation about Marie-Antoinette in the office that day and when you said you were coming as a housewife, I thought it was a joke about how she pretended to be one. And of course, I thought you were making a joke about Marie." He paused and looked her up and down, taking in the long form-fitting gown that showed of all her assets in just the right way. "I can't believe I never even thought of this."

Amanda laughed up at him. "I can't believe you didn't either. Morticia Addams is the ultimate housewife – she loves her kids, she loves her husband, she manages an entire household of crazy people…"

"And she drives her beloved crazy with French," chuckled Lee, sorely tempted to kiss her right there in the middle of the dance floor but knowing they were surrounded by people who knew them.

"How soon can we get out of here, ma chère?" asked Amanda in a jokey seductive tone "Joe's keeping the boys at his place and I'm past the age where my mother waits up for me."

"Well Morticia, based on the way the room is clearing, we won't have to be here much longer and then the night is ours."

"Thanks goodness. I can hardly wait to get out of this dress. It's too tight."

Lee tried to hide his grin as he murmured into her hair. "Believe me, it's not too tight but I can hardly wait to get you out of it either."


	2. Exposed

**Author's Note: This chapter is extremely NSFW and has adult material. It does not to be read in order for the rest of the story to make sense but does go some way to develop the theme of Lee & Amanda's emotional and physical trust in each other. Consider yourself warned. How did Hoydenish put it? "I wrote it and it makes even me blush"?**

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"Can you give me a hand with this? Mother put in so many pins, I can't figure out how to get it loose."

Lee finished shucking off the jeans he'd worn for his costume and looked over at Amanda. Unlike him, she was still fully dressed, hands full of bobby pins as she tried to loosen the wig of waist length black hair.

"You're going to take it off? I was kind of looking forward to spending the night with the new woman" he joked as he began pulling pins out of the hair at the nape of her neck. "I still have dreams about that redhead in Brussels." She chuckled as he helped her find the last pin and Lee watched as she pulled the wig off and began scrubbing her scalp with her fingers.

"Oh God, it feels so good to be free from that thing." She leaned back into him as his arms came around her and his lips began nibbling the back of her neck. "Now perhaps you could help me with this terribly uncomfortable dress."

Lee's breath puffed out against her ear in a quiet laugh before he began to undo the buttons down the back of her dress and then again when she added, "Knock, knock"

"Who's there?"

"Trick or treat"

"Trick or treat who?" As he reached the last button, he slipped his fingers under the dress at her shoulders and slid his hands along her arms, pushing the long sleeves down until the dress slipped off her wrists and then pooled at her feet, leaving her in the circle of his arms in just a lacy red bra and panties.

"Trick or treat depending on whether you're planning to pay for what happens next."

She smiled as he burst out laughing and hugged her tighter.

"So Morticia wears red lingerie, hmmm? I always pictured her wearing nothing but black."

"You always pictured that? Just how long have you had this thing for Mrs. Addams anyway? Aaahhhhh." Amanda's light laugh turned into a gasping moan when one of Lee's hands slid over the front of her panties while the other traced the ticklish spot just above her hip bone.

Lee stilled at the now familiar shudder. "A-man-da" he drawled out her name in a tone of wonder. "Did you just come although I barely touched you?" He could feel the panties under his hand getting damper but he still couldn't believe it.

"Just a little bit, yes." She was laughing but in a slightly embarrassed way. "You should take it as a compliment."

"Oh I do". He was now running his fingertips up and down her body, enjoying the shivers he was provoking. "I just don't think I've had that effect on someone before."

"That's probably because nobody else ever spent enough time with you to know what was going to happen next." She winced the moment the words were out of her mouth. "I'm sorry – that sounded like a cheap shot."

Lee's hands were still roaming her body as he breathed against her shoulder. "Nah, it's a fair comment. I'm just happy I do that to you."

"All the time, big fella."

"Wait a minute – _all the time_?" He was shaking now, trying not to laugh at her. "When else has this happened?"

She was having a hard time concentrating on the question as he slipped off her bra and began skimming his palms against her overly-sensitive breasts. "Umm, in bed home alone. At the grocery store. At the office. In a traffic jam once – I almost went into the car in front of me when my foot slipped off the pedal." Every sentence was punctuated by little gasps of pleasure as Lee stroked her everywhere.

"And what causes them?" Lee was genuinely interested in this new side of Amanda he hadn't known about.

"Flashbacks to moments like this for one or imagining what will happen the next time we're alone. Thinking about when you're moving against me from behind like now and I can feel how hard you are and how much you want me." She tilted forward slightly so she could grind her lower body against his erection. "Picturing you slipping your hands under my clothes. Oh God, yeah, like that" as his hand slipped into her panties and his thumb began circling her clit while two fingers slid inside her.

"What else?" he asked huskily. He had had no idea any of this had been going on in her head and he was getting harder than he'd thought possible. He could feel her body warming against his and knew she was finding the conversation as erotic as he was.

Amanda could feel the effect she was having on him and pressed closer to feel his erection jumping against her buttocks, but she surprised even herself as she went on. "The look on your face when I take you in my mouth. The look on your face when you go down on me." She stepped forward and put one knee up on the edge of the bed and looked back at him, eyes almost black now with her own arousal. "The way it feels when you rub yourself on me before you take me from behind. The feeling of you sliding in and out. In. And. Out."

If it had been anyone but Lee with that fierce expression on his face, it would have been a frisson of fear that she felt at that moment instead of anticipation as he came towards her. She knew she had pushed him past the point of no return and couldn't help a small crow of triumph, as he pushed her forward to bend over the bed and yanked her panties down her legs roughly. A feeling of complete recklessness came over her and she eagerly spread her legs, and bent down until she was resting on her forearms and looked back at him over her shoulder. "Fuck me, Lee. Please."

He really hadn't needed any encouragement but the break in her voice as she begged him that way sent him over the edge. He gripped her hips and began running his length back and forth against her swollen flesh, lubricating himself with her juices. She began to beg him to stop the torture but he held back until he could feel her shaking under his hands before forcefully sliding himself fully into her. They both barely had time to gasp out their relief before he was ramming himself against her, all thoughts of finesse or endearments long gone for both of them.

Maybe it was the angle, maybe it was the increased arousal on both their parts but something about the way Lee was pushing into her was rubbing the right spot inside her because suddenly Amanda began to moan uncontrollably as she felt the onset of what she knew was going to be an unbelievable orgasm. It began with an odd feeling of bonelessness and waves of muscle spasms that made her feel as though she was about to lose control of her bladder before spreading outward as shudders through her whole body, even as the most extreme sensations remained centred in her core. It was so intense she began to sob as she called out Lee's name over and over again.

Lee heard the sobs and panicked slightly that he had taken all this too far but the way her body had tightened around him was so overwhelming that he could do nothing now but wrap himself around her, calling her name as his body emptied itself. He collapsed on top of her curled body momentarily before rolling to his side and pulling her close to him, frantically repeating "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry" in an attempt to stop the crying.

She finally caught her breath enough to grab his face and begin kissing him. "Stop, stop, stop. You didn't hurt me, it was just so much _more_ than usual that I just lost control of, well, control of everything. That was amazing – I don't even have words for that. But this is good crying."

"You're really alright?" Lee was himself so emotionally overwrought by the last few minutes that he could almost grasp what she meant by good crying.

"Oh Lee, I am more than alright. That was incredible." She began to shake though, exhausted by the intensity of what they'd just shared. Lee quickly rose to lift her off the bed and pull the covers back before laying her back down and wrapping himself and the comforter around her.

"I have never had an experience like that before," he admitted to her. "And I have definitely never made someone cry before."

Amanda was still snuffling against his chest trying to rein in her raging emotions but gave a hiccup of a laugh. "Well that will definitely join the list of things that make me come just thinking about it."

Lee started to laugh in relief. "Me too."

Amanda snuggled into him, unable to stop a huge yawn. "So is this why you move apartments every year?"

"What?" Lee was mystified by the non sequitur.

"The noise complaints from your neighbours from all the women screaming out your name? Is that why you've had to move?" She smiled up at him, stroking his cheek to take the sting out of her joke.

Lee didn't know whether to laugh as well or blush as he looked down at her in awe. She was so forgiving of his past and so willing to trust him not to hurt her that he almost couldn't make sense of it. She could make herself as vulnerable as she just had, physically and emotionally, and then immediately turn around and tease him with no fear. Never in his life had someone trusted him so implicitly and as he watched her melt into him sleepily, he realized that she held his heart and trust the same way.

"My God, I love you so much Amanda" was all he could think to say.

Something in his tone made her open her eyes again to look into his. "I know. I love you too, Lee." She searched his eyes a little longer until she was satisfied with what she saw there and then curling further into his embrace, she fell asleep.


	3. The bump in the road

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The phone rang at 7:00 a.m.

"Stetson" barked Lee into the phone, instantly on alert. "Hi Billy. What's up?"

Amanda opened one eye and listened to Lee's part of the conversation.

"Seriously? Holy crap! ...Yeah, I can be there in an hour ... No, don't bother, I'll call her myself … I'll probably go pick her up so that might delay me though … okay, we'll see you as soon as we can."

He hung up the phone and stared at the ceiling.

She reached out to touch his arm. "What's up?"

"Do you have a change of clothes here?" She nodded and he went on "Good, that'll save a trip home. Billy needs us both to come in - he just got word Birol is in town and planning something big."

"Who's Birol?" asked Amanda.

"Addi Birol - one of the really bad guys, I'm afraid, but if we can catch him on our turf, that'll be huge."

Amanda could see from Lee's face that his mind was already racing ahead to this next case. She put her hand on his arm again and waited for his eyes to come back into focus on her. "How bad is really bad?"

"He's a terrorist, but don't worry we'll get him." Lee had his saving-the-world face on now.

Amanda looked at him with a matching expression of determination. "Yeah we will."


	4. Unsafe Arms

Lee was laying on the sofa in the Q Bureau, staring at the ceiling. He was exhausted and looked worse. It had been a week since they had captured Birol and rescued Amanda, but it felt like he had barely slept in all that time. Being on enforced leave never sat well with him, and this one was particularly galling. He couldn't easily go check on Amanda since she was at home with her mother underfoot so today was the first time he'd seen her properly since their rescue. When he'd run into her outside Dr. Pfaff's office that morning, he'd been shocked by her appearance – if anything, she looked like she had slept less than him, with dark shadows under her eyes and looking like she'd lost weight. "So much for rest being good medicine" he thought to himself. He'd thought she'd recover more quickly in the loving comfort of her family after being snatched away from them, but he was second-guessing himself now – maybe he should have insisted she come stay with him in the days following her release from NEST. Or maybe it was just that he had wanted for himself? His mental flagellation would not let up.

She'd been on her way in for her psych appointment as he'd been coming out so they had barely exchanged hellos before she'd been ushered in by the doctor. He couldn't put his finger on it but she'd seemed more distant that she usually did when they were putting on their agent faces for the office. Her smile didn't reach her eyes which was so unlike Amanda that he couldn't fend off the bubble of panic he felt rising in his chest. He thought about the last time she'd given him a smile that hadn't been tinged with fear, when she'd been joking with him about borrowing the pilot uniform to wear at home. What if the love light in her eyes of that day was gone? She had always trusted him, right from that first day on the train platform, but in that moment when he'd been pushed into that room in Birol's hideout, she hadn't even believed he was really there. Had she been more willing to believe that he was a hallucination than that he had come for her?

""I'm not sure which one of you two looks worse" said a voice from the doorway. Lee struggled to straighten up as Billy walked in, a look of concern on his face. "Have you slept at all since I last saw you?"

"Not a lot" admitted Lee. "I'm not good at sleeping during the day and at night I get zap gas nightmares. McJohn gave me sleeping pills but they don't help with the dreams; it just means it's harder to wake up so I haven't been using them." He leaned back and began massaging his temples, eyes closed.

Billy leaned on the edge of Lee's desk and watched him with a troubled expression. He'd seen Lee worried about Amanda many times before so he could recognize the signs but it seemed like there was something extra eating away at the Scarecrow this time. He shifted slightly and his hip knocked over something on the desk. Glancing down to pick it up, he realized it was a New Yorker cartoon of Gomez and Morticia Addams wrapped in an embrace. In neat print along the bottom of it was "I know it drives you crazy when I speak French to you, my love. MA." His lips quirked up, remembering that day he had phoned Lee at home, interrupting his tryst with Marie, an overly excitable French girl who had become enraged when Lee had accidentally called her Amanda. A memory of something else fluttered against his edges of his mind as he stared down at the cartoon and suddenly there it was in front of him, like a series of flash pictures. The Rosenberg Foundation party two weeks ago – Christ, was it really only two weeks? – Lee sneaking up to embrace an unsuspecting Francine in the Marie-Antoinette costume because he thought she was someone else, Amanda watching from her perch at the bar beside Billy, the look on Lee's face when he'd turned to see her there dressed as Morticia, the two of them dancing, close together like the pair in this picture, laughing together at something she'd said. And further back, Amanda teasing Lee about his new French girlfriend, Lee pretending to threaten her with security checks on her new boyfriend. Everything that happened during Stemwinder suddenly made sense.

"Oh my God" he thought to himself. "How did I miss it? How did they hide it? _Why_ did they hide it?" He realized Lee was speaking again and looked up.

"…and my apartment starts to feel claustrophobic so I usually just end up driving around aimlessly."

"Aimlessly?" asked Billy, in a suddenly knowing tone.

"Mostly aimlessly." acknowledged Lee with a wry expression. "I end up at Amanda's at least once every night, just compulsively walking around the outside of the house checking the doors are all locked."

"What does she have to say about that?"

"I don't know" admitted Lee. "I don't see her when I'm there because it's so late and she's asleep."

"Are you sure about that? She looks like she's been getting even less sleep than you. How does she seem to be coping with it?"

Lee shrugged his shoulders helplessly. "I have no idea. We've barely talked since we left the medical centre last week except for short phone calls when she can get away from her mother."

"Seriously? What are you thinking? You know better than anyone that partners are supposed to work through these things together and Amanda needs support more than most."

"I know, but how am I supposed to do that?" Lee ran his hand through his hair in frustration. "She's supposedly getting over some travel bug, so if I call as her boss, Dotty will probably hang up on me and if I call as a friend, Dotty will make her life a living hell asking if we're an item." Lee missed the small smile that went across Billy's face at that last part. "So I have to wait for her to call me, which she doesn't do very often. I think she blames me." He rubbed his palms across his eyes trying to wipe away the exhaustion he felt. "She barely spoke to me when I saw her outside Pfaff's office this morning."

"So she's with Pfaff now?"

Lee glanced at his watch. "No, she's probably been done for a while. She said she was going to check in with Beaman and Leatherneck when she was done to talk about getting back into training."

"Well that's a good sign."

"Yeah I guess it is. I just wish I knew what was going on in her head."

"Spend the rest of the day with her when you're both done here. There's no rush to get her home, right?"

"No, that's a good idea. I'll take her for lunch. I don't think she's been eating either from the looks of it."

Barely had the words left his mouth when the emergency announcement came over the rarely-used PA system. "Nearest medical personnel to Sector 10-C immediately."

"That's the gun range, isn't it?" asked Billy but before he was even finished the sentence, Lee was already halfway down the hall, racing for the stairs.

He'd feel the aches later from having gone down five flights of stairs taking four or five steps at a time, but he couldn't wait for the elevator. Bursting out of the stairwell, he ran down the hallway and skidded into Leatherneck's office space at the entrance to the range. Breathless from running and panic, he sagged with relief at the sight of Amanda leaning on a far wall, with her hand over her mouth and looking on the verge of tears. Fred Fielder was flat on the floor and Francine and Leatherneck were helping him to sit up as the medic arrived. Lee started to walk over to Amanda but for some reason she waved him off with a look of something he couldn't understand – was it panic? As he looked at her, still with her hand over her mouth, he wondered if she was going to be sick or faint– she was looking more flushed than pale but he still wasn't sure. All he knew was that whatever she needed, it apparently wasn't him. Trying to conceal his hurt at that thought, he turned back in time to see Francine kick a gun behind the counter out of harm's way but there was no sign of injury on Fred except a pained expression. The medic had a quick quiet conversation with Leatherneck before helping Fred to his feet and into a wheelchair to take him to the medical unit. As the door swung shut behind the medic, there was a long silence and then Leatherneck sighed and walked behind the counter to a chalkboard hanging on the wall.

"Fred strikes again" he said sadly, erasing the number 72 off from under the "Days without Incident" sticker and then adding a large zero instead. He turned to look at the three people standing silently behind the counter. "But honest to God, I'd pay to work here if I could watch him do that every day."

To Lee, it seemed as if a dam had burst. Francine collapsed against the counter shrieking with laughter as Amanda doubled over, laughing so hard Lee was worried she might actually pass out. Leatherneck was leaning on the other side of the counter, shaking silently. Every time one of them caught the eye of any of the others, it would set them off again. By now, Amanda was crying from laughing so hard but this time when he walked over to her, she didn't wave him off but instead put out her hands to cling to the front of his shirt, looking up at him with a look of such glee that he actually felt his heart seize up with relief. All the liveliness that had been missing from her that morning seemed to be back tenfold and he had to fight the temptation to take her in his arms and kiss her in front of their co-workers.

"I'm sorry about before but I knew if I looked at you before Fred left, I'd lose it in front of him," she whispered.

"What the hell happened?" he asked.

"I'd like to know that too" said Billy from the doorway. For a moment, the laughter ceased but then Francine made the mistake of looking at Leatherneck and they both dissolved again. It was left to Amanda to try and make sense of it for them.

"Well sir, I was chatting with Leatherneck about what kind of weapons training I needed to work on, and well, you know how I feel about guns." Billy nodded; everyone was aware of Amanda's aversion to them. "So anyway, he was showing something to me that I might consider as an alternative to actual firearms that I could use if needed. And then Fred and Francine came in and she came to look at it too, and she noticed that there was something wrong with the safety catch, but I couldn't get it to slide back into position because it was stuck and I really should have just put it down right then and asked Leatherneck for help…"

"Hang on a second there, Spartacus" interrupted Francine. "You are not taking the blame for this. This wasn't anybody's fault but Fred's."

"Absolutely" agreed Leatherneck. "I should have double-checked it before I let you handle it but if Fred had been listening at all, it never would have happened."

"But what did happen?" asked Lee, still at a loss.

Francine who picked up the story. "Well, Fred made some comment about how us 'ladies' should learn how to handle weapons better and he reached over to take it out of Amanda's hand and since he obviously wasn't really listening to the part about the safety not being in place, he managed to shoot himself."

"He _shot_ himself?" yelped Billy.

Lee was looking around in confusion. "But why isn't there any blood? Why didn't he look injured?"

"It wasn't a gun, Lee. I mean it was a gun, but it wasn't a gun-gun." Amanda was having trouble getting out the explanation as she'd started to laugh again, at the confused expressions on Lee and Billy's faces.

"Not a gun-gun?" repeated Lee.

"Nope" said Leatherneck. "It was one of those new model stun guns we just got in. When Fred grabbed it, he managed to bump the trigger in just the right way and shot himself right in the chest. Went down like someone had just beaned him with a bat. But he never let go of it, so it kept zapping him until I managed to knock it out of his hand with a broom handle." He leaned down behind the counter and gingerly lifted the stun gun from the floor where Francine had kicked it.

There was a moment of silence as Billy and Lee processed the mental image of Fred taking himself out with a stun gun and then Billy began to shake before finally bursting into laughter as well. His guffaws set everyone else in the room off again; Lee sat down, head in his hands, not just because it was hard to breathe while laughing so hard but also because he felt lightheaded at the sensation of actually having something to laugh at again. He looked up and could feel all the tension of the last two weeks draining out of him as he met Amanda's bright smile.

Finally Billy stopped laughing long enough to groan "But oh the paperwork!"

"I'm sorry, sir" said Amanda. "I'll stay and help with that - I still think it was my fault."

Billy smiled at her. "No, you're still officially on leave and it will be my pleasure to write up Fred. He managed to spectacularly raise the bar on office accidents this time, but it's really going to increase office morale when it gets out. You two get out of here – I don't want to see either of you back until next week except for your follow-ups with Dr. Pfaff, understood?"

"Yessir" chorused Lee and Amanda. Lee stood up and offered Amanda his elbow in an exaggerated motion.

"Lunch, partner?"

"Yeah – I'm suddenly starving." They started out the door before Amanda stopped and looked back. "Francine? Do you want to come with us? I've been trapped in my house with my mother for a week and I really need a lot of normal conversation."

Startled, Francine looked at Lee who just grinned and added, "Yeah, I owe you way more than lunch but we can start there. And you can fill us in on everything that's been going on here while we've been gone."

"Well then, I'd love to. I'm not getting much more done today as long as that mental image of Fred stays in my head, and besides, I remembered a bunch of new elephant jokes." She and Amanda shared a smile at Lee's pained groan.

Lee looked over to the other men for support. "If you two want to put off the paperwork until after lunch, we're heading for Ned's and I'm buying."

"Only if Amanda promises to describe Fred going down for the count again."

Billy smiled as he heard the three agents whooping with laughter as they walked away down the hall. He turned back to Leatherneck and paused on his way out to follow them. "They both look a hundred times better than when they walked in here today. Do you think we could use Fred to cure all our agents that way?"

Leatherneck walked around the counter and said in a confiding tone as they stepped out into the hallway, "If you'll do the paperwork, I'll happily zap that idiot every week."


	5. Singin' in the Rain

Author's Note: This chapter is NSFW. Adult content.

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 **SMK**SMK**SMK**

It was past midnight when Lee parked his car just slightly down the block from Amanda's house and peered out through the rain-lashed windshield debating whether to park closer for once given the downpour he was going to have to walk through. He had almost decided to take the chance when he saw something appear in her driveway. "What on earth?" he thought to himself, before his brain could make sense of what he was seeing. It was Amanda was holding an umbrella in one hand and dragging a garbage can to the curb with the other, dressed in only a cotton nightgown and what he finally realized were rubber boots. Chuckling to himself, he got out of the Corvette and started to walk towards her, thinking he could get there in time to help, but before he was halfway there, Amanda gave one last heave, left the can at the end of the driveway and turned back to the house, without having seen him approach. She began to jog back up towards the house and then to his amusement, she suddenly stopped dead and jumped with both feet into a puddle in the middle of her driveway and stood there laughing for a few seconds before continuing up the side of the house and disappearing around the back of the house.

Lee broke into a jog as well, hoping to catch her before she disappeared into the house but when he rounded the corner, he discovered she was still outside. In fact, she was standing in the middle of her back yard, umbrella now dropped to her side, face raised to the rain pouring down, and as he watched, she began dancing around kicking at puddles and singing.

"Singing in the Rain, I'm singing in the rain, what a glorious feeling, I'm happy again.  
I'm laughing at clouds, so dark up above, there's a song in my heart and I'm ready for love"

Lee strode forward and caught her mid-twirl, wrapping his arms around her and lifting her off her feet, laughing at the strangled yelp she gave as she found herself face-to-face with him.

"Well if it isn't Ethel Barrymore!"

Amanda gurgled with laughter. "Is there any old movie you haven't memorized all the lines to?"

"Not a lot. And I've always had a thing for Debbie Reynolds". Lee was now swinging her gently around the garden, nuzzling her neck while humming "Singing in the Rain".

"I'm not complaining but what brings you here so late?"

"I couldn't sleep and my car drives itself here now." He smiled as he felt her laugh. "So why are you up so late? You promised at lunch you were going to try and get more sleep."

"I was in bed but then I remembered Philip hadn't taken the garbage out, and they come at the crack of dawn, so I got back up to do that. If I'd known you were going to show up, I would have made you do it."

"But then you wouldn't have gotten to dance in the rain."

"Mmm, true. It's just good to be outside, y'know?" His arms tightened around her at the way her voice had cracked slightly the way it did when she was emotional. He realized she was soaking wet and stopped to pull off his jacket and make her put it on before slipping his own arms underneath it as he took her back into his arms.

They continued to sway gently around the garden before Amanda went on. "I'm so glad you're here. It was nice to see Billy and Francine at lunch but we didn't get to talk much. So tell me, what have you been doing all week? Other than not sleeping?"

"Nothing much. Sitting at home trying to figure out how to call you without setting your mother off."

"Funny, that's what I was doing too. It's weird - the hallucinations when I was - away - were all kind of comforting, but now that I'm actually home and safe, every time I start to fall asleep, I have a panic attack and then I'm up half the night. I should have felt sorrier for Fred today – that's what it's like, all zappy nerves and being paralyzed at the same time. At least I'm not having any trouble convincing Mother I've got flu or something because I feel like something the cat dragged in by the morning. And now I'm rambling, sorry."

Lee hugged her a little more closely to him. "I've missed your rambles, but I wish I'd known the rest of it. I've been here most nights checking the house but I thought you'd be down for the count in the middle of the night."

"You've been here?" She leaned back to look up at him with a stunned expression. "I thought…" She stopped abruptly.

"You thought what?" He cocked his head and looked at her as she bit her lip. "Amanda?"

"I thought you were avoiding me." Her voice was barely a whisper and she appeared to be looking anywhere except directly at him.

"A-man-da! Why would I be avoiding you when I just asked you to marry me?"

She snuck a peek at his face and then went back to staring at the middle of his chest, before launching into rapid speech.

"Well, you know how everything seems worse at 3 am? And I haven't been sleeping and when I do sleep, the hallucinations are still getting mixed up with what really happened and I can't talk to Mother about anything and you weren't calling and I never saw you out here and sometimes, just sometimes, well until this morning, I thought maybe you'd changed your mind about that." She finally ran out of breath.

"A-man-da! You cannot be serious!"

"Well I don't _now._ That was just 3 am talking!"

"So what was different about this morning?"

"The look on your face when you came running into the gun range. That was the other reason I wouldn't let you come near me at first. It was such a relief to see you just then that if I'd let you come any closer, I would totally have given us away in front of Francine."

"So that's why you've hardly been calling." He drew her in close again and rested his head against hers silently for a moment before going on "Well at least we're consistent. I thought you were avoiding me too because you blamed me for not stopping him from taking you away. I thought you'd lost your trust in me."

Amanda gave a watery laugh. "I will never do that but you and I seem to have this conversation a lot, don't we?"

"Yeah, we do, but let's try to not have to have it again, ok?"

"Pinky swear?"

Lee couldn't help laughing. "Pinky swear." He had gone back to dancing her slowly around the garden. "Sweetheart, I love you but what it is with you and always wanting to go out on errands in your nightgown? And although the rubber boots are a fantastic new accessory they are not well designed for dancing."

Amanda stepped back and kicked off the boots towards the house before stepping back into his arms. "There you go. Nothing now but the nightgown."

"Someone once told me it can be even better without the sexy nightgown."

"Ah, but this is very unsexy nightgown, ma chère" chuckled Amanda, tilting her head up to look in his eyes and then seeing the familiar flare of desire in them, drew his head down to hers. His hands slid down her back before coming to rest at her hips. He pulled back from the kiss and as his heated gaze travelled over her body, he realized he could see every detail of her through the soaking cotton that clung to her skin. He watched as she flushed, responding physically to the desire in his look and moved his hands to cup her breasts and gently rub his thumbs over the nipples already pebbled from the rain and cool air.

"There is no such thing as an unsexy nightgown on you, Amanda" he growled. "But it would definitely be better without it." Lifting her off her feet, Lee carried her to the semi-darkness and relative dry of the gazebo, before setting her down and lowering his head to kiss her while his hands roamed up her thighs and under the nightgown.

"No fair. You're still dressed." groaned Amanda, tugging his shirt out of his waistband and racing to undo his belt. Before she could finish, Lee had backed her up against one of the posts and was slowly dropping to his knees in front of her, kissing his way down her body through the thin cotton. She gave a guttural moan of pleasure as he lifted the hem and began licking her on the ticklish skin of her belly. His hands traced their way down her ribs, then gently encouraged her to stand wider so that he could reach her core. With two fingers inside her, gently stroking her inner wall, he began licking and tugging on her engorged bud, marvelling again at how instant her arousal for him was. Her fingers were lacing their way through his hair and her breath was now increasingly ragged. Suddenly he could feel her tensing as if she was about to climax but was startled when she gripped his shoulders and said forcefully "Stop!"

Panicked that he'd hurt her somehow, he let go and scrambled to his feet. "Amanda? What's wrong?"

"Oh God, I don't mean stop! Don't stop, just wait. I need you, I need to be _with_ you." She had grabbed his waistband and pulled him back in close to her, desperately working at the button and zip on his jeans. Comprehension dawned and as he stepped back to help her undo them, she began pushing him back towards the bench at the back of the gazebo, until he hit it with the back of his knees. He barely had time to push his jeans even partway off before she had pushed him to sit down and straddled his lap. Her dark eyes looked straight into his as she guided towards her entrance, then closed with an expression of relief as he filled her. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, pressing her body against his. He could feel her gasping into his hair and could feel his heart pounding rapidly in rhythm with hers. He thought for one brief moment that he would be happy to die like this, her body wrapped around his in every possible way, until she began to rock back and forth against him, becoming increasingly frantic as if she was trying to climb inside him. The rush of increased arousal hit him like a freight train and he knew he was not going to last long.

"Come with me!" he growled into her ear.

"Anywhere. Oh God, Lee!" she moaned as she began to spasm around him, her inner muscles milking him as he went tumbling into momentary oblivion, calling her name.

He was still holding her, both of them twitching from aftershocks when she started to shake and he realized she was laughing. "If that was another hallucination, it was _definitely_ the best one yet."

"Mmm, and I bet that wasn't what Billy had in mind when he said I should be trying harder to work through everything with my partner."

At that, they both began to laugh, muffling it against each other's bodies, all too aware that they might be heard, but unable to stop. Finally though, they calmed down enough to disentangle from each other and Amanda stood up, pulled him to his feet and watched as he put his clothes to rights.

"That was amazing but I'm freezing and I'm going to go take a hot shower before I get back in bed. I'd invite you to join me but…"

"Yeah, there's always that 'but'." He walked her to the back door and stopped while she slid his coat off and handed it back to him. "I don't know about you, but I think I may actually sleep tonight."

"Me too. What are you doing tomorrow?"

"Absolutely nothing. Laying around the apartment watching old movies and eating junk food, unless you can come out and play, in which case..."

"We'll both be laying around your apartment watching old movies and eating junk food," she finished.

"In an ideal world yes. We could even venture outside again if it's stopped raining by then."

He looked down at Amanda who was staring at his chest again and playing absently with one of his shirt buttons.

"Um, Lee? If I tell Mother I've been asked to go out on location, do you think I could come and stay for a few days?" She peeked up at him to see his reaction and thrilled at the way his face lit up.

"Really? God, yes!"

"I feel like I'll sleep better if I'm with you."

"Me too. I wanted to suggest it, but I thought you wouldn't want to be away from the boys again so soon."

"Well, I don't want to be but I think I have to be. I can call them every day but right now I need to be with you, especially at 3 am."

"Do you want me to pick you up in the morning?"

"Yes, because I'll need to leave the car for Mother, but I'll need you to phone first and pretend to call me into work."

"We'll work out a pick-up time then." He hugged her tightly, giddy at the prospect of spending a few days alone with her. "I love you, my Amanda."

"I love you too."

She slipped in the door and he grinned as she made a point of over exaggeratedly showing him she was locking the door. He blew her a kiss through the window and watched her head up the stairs before heading back to his car, kicking at puddles as he went.

"Singing in the Rain, I'm singing in the rain, what a glorious feeling, I'm happy again.  
I'm laughing at clouds, so dark up above, there's a song in my heart and I'm ready for love"

As he walked under her bedroom window he heard it slide open and she leaned out laughing. "Hey, Big Fella?"

"Yes Morticia?"

"If I bring a sexy nightgown, any chance you've got that blue jumpsuit at home?" In the light from the street lamps, she could see him laughing up at her, love shining from his eyes.

"Goodnight, mon amour. Go get some sleep."

She could still hear him chuckling on his way to the car as she called softly after him "If not, I'll settle for the tux!"


	6. Guardian Angels

"And you need me to do this because why?" Jeanie gave her husband a quizzical look across the kitchen table.

"I want you to do it because I can't ask anyone at the Agency to do it. It isn't Agency business, it's personal, and if I'm right, they have their reasons for why no one at work knows about it. But if I _am_ right, I need to know so that I can try and keep the Agency out of it."

"Fine, pass me the phone."

Billy grinned at her as he dialled the number and passed the handset to his wife as it began to ring.

"Oh hello, is this Mrs. West? Hi, this is Amanda's friend Jean from the PTA. Is she there? … Oh, she's away again? My, that job of hers really keeps her busy doesn't it? … Oh really? She was? … You got to meet him? … Oh really? You don't say? …. My, oh my, I would love to meet him sometime, he sounds fascinating. … No don't bother telling her I called; we were just getting a group together for coffee tomorrow morning and I thought I'd see if she could come. We'll catch her next time. … Ok, goodbye. Nice talking to you too."

Jeanie hung up and smiled at her husband. "You were right."

"What did her mother say?"

"That Amanda got picked up two days ago to go to a film location for work by a _very_ handsome man named Lee Stetson who is apparently an eleven and she doesn't expect her back for at least a few more days."

Billy leaned back, a look of relief on his face. "Thank God for that."

"From the look on your face, they're not really anywhere working, are they? And why is this such a particularly good thing? You're not usually such a romantic."

"When they were trying to recover separately, they couldn't but if they've found their way back to each other, I get my strongest team back in one piece."

Jeanie looked disappointed at his response. "So this is all about how this is good for the Agency?"

Billy started to chuckle. "Oh no, that's just a bonus. This is all about me taking the chance three years ago that someone like Amanda could save Lee Stetson from an early grave and it paying off."

Jeanie lifted her wine glass and toasted her husband. "Well, I can drink to that."


End file.
